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I accidentally ran over the Samsung Galaxy S9 with my car - and it's still as good as new
I accidentally ran over the Samsung Galaxy S9 with my car - and it's still as good as new
Antonio Villas-BoasApr 24, 2018, 00:23 IST
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
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In case you were wondering, the Galaxy S9 Plus housed inside the $30 Incipio Dualpro case, can survive the weight of a Subaru Outback.
You don't need to know how it happened. It was a simple example of human error. All you need to know is that I accidentally ran over the Business Insider office's Galaxy S9 review unit with a front tire - and then a rear tire - and it suffered absolutely no damage whatsoever.
There was so little damage, that when I was using it later, I actually managed to temporarily forget that it was run over by a car. Twice, technically, if you count each tire.
I don't know if the Galaxy S9 on its own - without a case - could have survived its unexpected durability trial. That seems unlikely considering the drop tests conducted by SquareTrade, where the S9's screen cracks pretty easily from a six-foot drop.
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And I don't know whether other cases from Incipio or other case makers could protect the Galaxy S9 as well. All I know is that the Galaxy S9 display is made of strong glass, and the Incipio Dualpro is a good case.
Actually, there was one thing that happened when I ran over the phone with my car. The music I was playing to a Bluetooth speaker was paused. I pressed the play button after wiping the screen from the dusty tire marks and the music resumed.
Check out what a Galaxy S9 looks like after being run over by a car:
I found the phone with the screen facing up. This means I ran straight over the Galaxy S9's screen and it didn't crack.
I'm actually not that surprised that the Galaxy S9's screen didn't crack. A phone's screen is most prone to cracking when there's a lot of shock all in one spot — like when you drop it. However, my car's tire would have applied the pressure mostly evenly, and so it survived.
What was surprising is that the screen didn't scratch at all.
I didn't use a screen protector of the Galaxy S9, and yet it didn't suffer any scratches. Any blemish you see on the screen is dust, or a reflection of the sun.
The Galaxy S9's display uses Gorilla Glass 5, which is tough and scratch-resistant glass. Gorilla Glass 5 is also used in other high-end smartphones from Google, LG, HTC, and even less expensive phones from OnePlus. With that in mind, you could say that other phones with Gorilla Glass 5 would escape the car treatment without a scratch. But I wasn't willing to place more phones under my car's tires to test the theory.
Apple's latest iPhones – including the iPhone 8 and iPhone X – could also potentially fare just as well as the Galaxy S9, if not better. According to 9to5Mac, Apple worked with Gorilla Glass to make its own tough glass that's even tougher than Gorilla Glass 5.
The glass on the back and the camera were unscathed.
I was worried that the glass on the back of the Galaxy S9 could have cracked while inside the case, but I was relieved to find that nothing happened to BI's Galaxy S9 review unit — it probably would have meant answering some awkward questions.
The Incipio case itself had a few minor scuffs, but nothing too bad.
And it's still 100% functional.
Use a case, people. You never know what could happen to your expensive smartphone. I certainly wasn't expecting to run this one over.
